Nigeria's bishops join critics of presidential poll

Published: 23 April 2007

The head of Nigeria's bishops conference, Archbishop Felix Alaba
Adeosin Job, has joined human rights groups in denouncing the recent
violence-marred presidential elections.

Angola Press
reports that the US-based rights watchdog Human Rights Watch yesterday
criticised the election for its late start, the shortage of ballot
papers, widespread voter intimidation, the seizure of ballot boxes by
thugs and vote buying.

"Instead of guaranteeing citizens basic
right to vote freely, the Nigerian government and electoral officials
actively colluded in the fraud and violence," the group's Africa
director Peter Takirambudde said in a statement.

"In other
areas, officials closed their eyes to human rights abuses committed by
supporters of the ruling party and others," Mr Takirambudde said.

His
remarks echoed those of Archbishop Felix Alaba Adeosin Job, the head of
Nigeria's Catholic Bishops Conference, which represents some 30 million
believers - or one out of five people in Africa's most populous nation
of 140 million.

Speaking at a news conference on Tuesday,
Archbishop Job cited massive fraud and disorganisation, including
result sheets being passed around to politicians who simply filled in
numbers as they chose while bribed returning electoral officers looked
away.

"We have again failed in conducting free, fair and credible elections," the archbishop said.

The
European Union, which like former colonial power Britain and the US,
was "deeply troubled" by voting irregularities, estimates at least 200
people died in Nigeria's two-stage state, presidential and
parliamentary polls on 14 and 21 April.